Financial Planner of the year: The benefits of a balanced approach to life planning

Wayne Leggett became a life agent by virtue of choosing a commission sales career path because he liked the idea of being his own boss.

“Why I stuck with life insurance after trying my hand in it was that I very quickly got enthused about what I could see was the potential to help people improve their financial situation,” said Leggett, who on his first entry into Money Management’s Financial Planner of the Year has been highly commended by the judges.

Leggett has been helping people improve their financial situations for over 30 years now. As the products and services on offer broadened, what he was able to offer people got better.

“After a year in [the industry],” Leggett said, “I stopped and looked at it and I thought, well, I’m enjoying it, I’m answerable only effectively to myself and my clients, I’ve made more money than I would’ve made than if I was on a salary. Where’s the downside?”

Leggett stayed the course and suddenly found the financial planning industry was growing around him, “and the rest, as they say, is history”.

Indeed, Leggett began his career when the industry was still nascent.

He was one of the first Australian advisers to complete the Diploma of Financial Planning and the Diploma in Life Insurance, as well as being one of the first to qualify as a Certified Financial Planner.

He’s also kept busy these days with media commentary and conferences around the country.

It has so far been an interesting and deeply rewarding journey for Leggett, who is content with the path he has followed, despite some missteps along the way.

“I was really wet behind the ears and I took it upon myself that … it was the smarter thing to do to deal with people who were sort of around my age or even younger, rather than aim at the top of the tree where people knew what they were doing,” Leggett said.

“If I could wind the clock back, I’d have aimed higher earlier because I only really got cracking when I realised that I had some intellectual property that was worth something and I needed to be talking to people who could afford me.”

Leggett clearly has a firmer grasp of the value he offers to clients, and he seems to manage both business and community obligations rather adeptly.

As one of this year’s judges, Julian Battistella, noted, Leggett’s client-orientated approach and longstanding contribution to the industry is impressive.

Leggett has also given back to the community through his charitable endeavours and involvement with various local community groups.

On the work front, Battistella commended a move to fee for service and Leggett’s focus on providing strategic solutions for his clients.

“[It] is a wonderful demonstration of his commitment to assisting financial planning to achieve its long-term goal of being regarded as a true profession alongside accounting, law and medicine,” Battistella said.

For Leggett, who is co-principal of Paramount Wealth Management, having a business is interesting in itself and he said he only really came to terms with it when he bought out a senior colleague who was retiring 12 years ago. Now the business has two other partners, who are equal equity owners, as well as four support staff.

Treating it like a business, measuring the bottom line and keeping a clear focus hasn’t steered him wrong and Leggett is evidently managing a well-balanced approach to his work. His passion for delivering quality service to clients is matched by his dedication to matters outside of work, including his wife and four adult children.

“The beauty of it is, in financial services, at the planning end of the industry at least … if you do things that are in the client’s best interests, you build the value of your business and it becomes more profitable and more valuable, so it’s a win-win scenario.”

Even now with the financial turmoil around the globe?

“I’m in the fortunate space, and I’m talking about myself personally as distinct from the business, where I’ve very deliberately targeted delegators who are still in the accumulation phase, and they’re the people I deal with,” said Leggett, who said his clients, despite some concerns, ultimately leave their financial affairs to him.

“And I’ve virtually had to have the conversation about the current world situation with no more than two or three people where it wasn’t initiated by myself,” he added. “And that’s over the last 12 months. My phone just isn’t ringing.”

Even so, he admitted that, from a business perspective, he’s feeling bullish about the future.

“… People who were making money while money was easy to make but maybe don’t have either the experience … or don’t have a business model that can tough this scenario out [will] fall by the wayside and it just means there’s less businesses to look after more clients. And I can capitalise on that.”

Leggett said he’s staggered by how many planners act surprised when there’s a downturn.

“I’m coming up on 30 years in the caper. This is, what, now the fifth time that I’ve been through a serious market downturn? And we keep talking about the fact that these things move in cycles that are roughly seven years … but as planners, when it happens, we all go, ‘What the hell?’, like it’s a surprise.”

Leggett tells his clients that the industry can estimate how often it will correct and to what extent.

“The only things we can’t really tell you are when and why. But when it happens, just hang onto your hat, because it is going to happen. And all you can do is, if you’re appropriately structured, tough it out and ride out the other side.”

Leggett does have more than a shade of the optimist in him. He noted the strength of the Australian financial services industry in comparison to overseas markets.

“We’ve got a much better regulated and a much more professional industry than a lot of the rest of the world.”

Leggett believes it puts Australia “in the box seat” in terms of assisting in development of other marketplaces.

He said Australian advisers may find the opportunities to go overseas and establish client bases there, or they may be able to assist those in the industry overseas in their own growth and development in a training capacity.

But despite his loyalty to the industry, Leggett admits to being “frustrated and disappointed” by the mounting evidence that seems to suggest planners can still simply be “salesmen”, always looking for new product and opportunities for clients.

Without delving into the issue of fees versus commission, Leggett added that: “If you wear the mantle of financial adviser then advise on financial matters. And how you get paid should be a secondary issue to how you do the job. And we don’t seem, as an industry, to have quite got that yet.”

Even though Leggett could comfortably retire about now, he’s staying put.

“I work 50 hours a week and I’ve been successful at it and I’ve done reasonably well financially. But I’m still married to the same lady I met [over 30] years ago, my kids are all around me, I love my business, I have a good relationship with my clients, but I’ve still got a life outside of it all.”

And he still gets a buzz when he meets new clients and sees opportunities to help them.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to start working with someone and hear them espouse their goals and trying to figure out how they’re going to achieve them, and knowing that you’ve got the tools in your bag of tricks to help them get there.”